About

03 April 2014

Local TD Frances Fitzgerald, Minister for Children & Youth Affairs, has welcomed the Government announcement that €60,000 is being provided to support the delivery of anti-bullying training sessions for parents in 2014.

Welcoming the funding, Minister Fitzgerald said: I warmly welcome the ring-fencing of €60,000 for Anti-Bullying Parent Training in 2014. This is the second year that the Government has supported this invaluable work which reaches out directly to parents.

“The training sessions are available throughout Ireland and will provide important supports to parents, empowering them to assist their children when bullying difficulties arise.

“Having launched the Action Plan on Bullying with Minister Quinn in 2013, I echo his assessment that bullying is not a problem schools can or should be left to tackle alone. Parents, families and the wider community have an important role to play in tackling all forms of bullying and in teaching children how to manage relationships, be resilient and have empathy for others.

“I am encouraging parents in the Dublin Mid-West region to attend these sessions, to provide them with better tools to assist their children if issues of bullying arise,” Minister Fitzgerald concluded.

Background Note: Last year, the Department of Education provided funding of €60,000 to support the delivery of 105 anti-bullying parent training sessions to 3,279 participants nationwide.

The Parents Councils have also developed an information leaflet for parents and these can be downloaded from their websites.

Over 90% of parents who attended the training sessions last year said that they felt more confident in supporting their child with a bullying issue following the session. Likewise, over 90% said they felt more confident engaging with their school if a bullying issue arose with their child.

The Anti-Bullying Parent Training Programme is being run jointly by the National Parents Council Primary (NPC-P) and the National Parents Council Post Primary (NPC-PP) to support the implementation of the Action Plan on Bullying which called for training and resources for parents and boards of management.

The Anti-Bullying Procedures for schools are available on the Department’s website at: http://www.education.ie/en/Publications/Policy-Reports/Anti-Bullying-Procedures-for-Primary-and-Post-Primary-Schools.pdf

The information leaflet on bullying for parents are available at: http://www.npc.ie/attachments/4da14503-0952-4611-9c8b-67cdd260b68e.PDF